THANK YOU-RADOVICH & DEAN MUSIC!

It’s been about a week sense I have been up in the New York Sate area. I did have a gig to do at the Putnam County 4-H fair when I first arrived and as always I tell folks in the audience what we are sill doing down in the Gulf Coast. One never knows who is out there and one never knows what it might bring in as far as musical instruments. While I was at the festival I saw a friend who I met the year earlier, Paul who gave us an accordion. And Paul introduces me to David Radovich and his wife who owns a music store www.radovichandean.com in Carmel, New York. They told they have some instruments they would like to donate. As always at festivals things get busy so I shake their hands and got their cards and told them I would call them in a day or so.

First thing Monday I call Dave and ask him when the best time to come by. Its gonna be a busy week so we finally agree to meet on Wednesday. Well Wednesday rolls around and I find the best way to find the best way to get to Carmel,NY. The county around here is still rural and there are always back road and short cuts to get to places. Well I call Dave and ask him what the best time to meet. He tells me to meet at this barn where they keep their instruments. After about an Hour or so I find Carmel at the barn and call Dave and tell him I think I am at the right place. Very soon Dave shows up and we shake hands and talk a little and he opens up the barn and looks around. What I see is a barn full of instruments cases. Dave looks it over and says,”Well this will do, and yes, this will do.” And after a while I am pilling up a pile of instruments in the car and it keeps going. I tell him, “Dave I don’t think I can fit in any more.” So I drive over to the music store and thank his wife and their assistance, Eric.

After I get back to my girlfriends home, Sue Altkin who has been on a trip with us to the Gulf Coast she looks at the pile of instruments and goes, “wow, what a pile” Well after a while we make a count and it comes to 21 instruments!

This is going to make a few schools happy and we all of The Feel Good Tour want to thank Radovich and Dean Music for their kind donation.

Still Pickin'

Bill Hudson

http://www.dragonfly.com/ is sending entertainers to the devastated areas in Louisiana and Mississippi

Summer 2008

It’s been a busy summer and with gas prices affecting everything we are all busy trying to keep our noses above the waterline.

The net is a funny thing; one never knows who is reading your blog and story. Last spring I got an e-mail from some folks in Minn. They asked me if they could bring musical instruments when they go back down to the gulf coast. I wrote them right back and said sure that would be a great idea and sent them the info as to what High Schools we are dealing with and who to contact. After a while their church collected about 30 to 40 instruments for the kids, which was great.

The photo above shows some of the kids with their brand new instruments. Thanks for helping out Minn. You have made some kids very happy!

Now with had some friends Mel and Vinnie that came down with us to the gulf coast a while back. They are from NY State and were a great help on that tour. So we found out that they went down again and this time with an organ for a church in New Orleans. The organ was a tight fit in their van for the organ. But they went all the way down on their own in helping out this particular church. Thank you folks!

So as you can see people from all over the counties are trying to do their best in helping out the communities in the gulf coast. And if there is anyone out there that needs any info we would be happy to share with you what schools we are working with. Who knows you might make some friends and change this world and help some kids. Here is hoping everyone is having a safe summer and keep in mind we are going down again this Sept.

Still Pickin’

Bill Hudson

http://www.dragonfly.com/ is sending entertainers to the devastated areas in Louisiana and Mississippi

Small Worlds

Now getting to Uncle Bucks radio show was a bit different then Jon Stein’s show. For one, instead of one person that was going to interview me there was going to be 3. See, with his show besides himself there are two other friends of his that help out. They always start the show off singing, “When you’re smiling” and right away I knew this was going to be different. And besides that the room is full of people that he was going to interview almost all at the same time, in a way. Everyone seemed to be talking all at once like my family around the dinner table. So all in all Uncle Buck was very kind and we hope to stop by his place again.

The very next day I had to get ready for the gig which was on the Hudson River in a town called Piermont, NY there was a host of things to do that day and we had to be at the gig for sound check at 5 PM. My music publisher, John Dentato was driving up from NYC to meet us and see the show it would be good to see John again.

When we got there John was sitting on the porch having dinner and Sue and I waved and smiled as we brought in our stuff. I sat down with John for a while and we talked as to what we are doing. This show was going only be about 90 minutes so things were going to happen fast.

The group The Work o the Weavers,http://www.workotheweavers.com/ comes in and I get to meet everyone. They had more to set up so I let them set up and get their sound right, then I do my sound check and we are ready. They want me to do a 15 minute set. That gives me time to say a few things about The Feel Good Tour and maybe about 3 songs.

Folks start to come in and sit down. The Turning Point,http://www.turningpointcafe.com/ seats about 70 folks and every one seats right next to each other. So it’s a real down home kind of feeling kind of place. John the owner does the sound so I can tell this person is a real hands on person and cares about the quality of the sound.

Before you know it my time comes up and I do my set with Sue Alkins helping out on one tune. I really like the soft way she sings. I told the folk there at the club the mess down in the Gulf Coast is NOT over and if anyone wants any info to please take one of our brochures. I tell them a few stories and try to stick to the singing.

Then it was time for the main act and this was my first time in seeing them. The group went through the songs everyone remembers the Weavers doing. But the one song that hit me was David Bernz’s song about Pete Seeger loosing his old banjo. Caught me right off guard, damn good song!

Well when you’re having fun time sure goes fast and before you know it their set was up. See, the owner has another act that comes in after us, a rock act. So we all broke down our stuff and went up stairs for dinner to talk and get to say hello to each other. As it turns out the bass player, Mark Murphy has played with a friend of mine, Guy Davis and Mark’s Dad also knew my music publisher John Dentato. So it’s a small world as they say.

As the night was getting late we all went to our cars still talking about one thing or another. Its funny James Durst the guitar player knows Henry the Fiddler well. They met years ago out in the Midwest, small world indeed.

Still Pickin’

Bill Hudson

Some where in New York

http://www.dragonfly.com/ is sending entertainers to the devastated areas in Louisiana and Mississippi

GETTING THE WORD OUT IN NY

I want to thank a few folks out there that I think we will be working again in the near future. One is David Bernz from the group Work o’ the Weavers. http://www.workotheweavers.com/ He asked me to open up for them and said it was ok to say a few words about what we are still doing down in the Gulf Coast. So I figured it might be a good idea to let people know what is going on the ground down there, still. The group was playing at The Turning Point, http://www.turningpointcafe.com/ in Piermont, NY

So I look on the calendar and called David Bernz back and told him I could do it. The day before Jon Stein of WTBQ, http://www.wtbq.com/programming.asp in Warwick, NY wanted to interview me for his radio show, Hootenanny Café.

Well, after a few hours drive I got to New York the night before to get ready for the interview with John. We had to be there the morning before very early at 8AM So, early the next morning we jumped in the car, coffee in hand. The one thing that I love about New York is the county. After all this time is still is a lot of farm land around. So the drive to WTBQ was a nice early morning drive with spring in the air. Its cool to see so many things start to blossom.

We get to the station on time and get to meet Jon Stein again. It’s been about two years sense we did our last interview. As it turns out Jon also crewed on the Clearwater. So, in a way, the large circle of friends from the Clearwater well, we keep bumping into each other. The radio station is at a new location and is in a larger building. They have a nice view of the mountains. The interview went well and Jon keeping asking me why does the government put in their share of helping out? I told him what I tell a lot of folks, which is in spit of the government NOT helping as they should there are folks from all walks of life at this moment helping out along the Gulf Coast. After the interview Jon asked me if I would do another radio show called, The Uncle Buck Show. I said I would and Sue and I went for lunch in a nearby town. After about an hour or so we headed back to the studio to meet Uncle Buck.

To be continued……

Still Pickin’

Bill Hudson

http://www.dragonfly.com/ is sending entertainers to the devastated areas in Louisiana and Mississippi

Our Day at the Community Center of St. Bernard’s

In the last post I mentioned how many people from all ways of life are doing more then their fair share and helping re-build more then just homes down in the Gulf Coast. Mother Jones use to say, “Pray for the dead and work like hell for the living.” And folks down that way are working like hell, to say the least. So I want to tell you about the Community Center that is located in Arabi, La.

It is run by Iray and Sharon and a numbers of hard working volunteers. . Two people from two parts of this county coming together somehow in New Orleans, how many times has that happened?

I remember seeing Iray at The made with Love Café’ in 2005. The cafe’ which was also in Arabi had a hub of activities. At the time there were a lot of rainbow people along with the 82^nd Airborne that had set up a Geodesic dome (Thanks to the firemen!) that fit 1,000 people. They were feeding about 1,500 a day, 3 meals a day. Iray was working the kitchen and a few other spots on the grounds. I remember seeing him either going somewhere or picking up the garbage from the ground, he did not stay still. Many did not in those days, there was too much to do.

I first met Sharon when she was working with Peter Spring. She is very good at writing grants, Pete always told me. She is from Pennsylvania and is with the Mennonite community. I got an e-mail from her asking us to come down. I wrote right back and said we would be happy to come down and play some music. Al and Mike and Elaine talked about it and set a day off for it.

So this is sort of a new Community sprouting from the Made with Love Café’ A building that went through the flood but is now painted and cleaned up with a full kitchen, office space, computer room and a very large room for serving large numbers.

As soon as we walked in Sharon was mopping the floor cleaning up yet another mess, and maybe doing a host of many other things all at the same time. She has a great smile with for every visitor that’s comes in with a need, she has a warm hello. I met Iray again and we shake hands and he told me a little bit how this place came to be. See, Iray is a biker from N.H. who shut his house down to come down here. The way I get it he was not going to be here long. That was 2 1/2 years ago, and here he still is.

Mike, Elaine, Al and I haul in the instruments and pull them out and play for some folks who happened to be eating. We set our stuff down and Iray gave a short story about the how and where and when and at the same time getting things done on what appeared to be a very busy day.

I think I sat down and played a few tunes and while the other folks got something to eat. Then after they got a bit to eat, they played and I got a bit to eat. In some way that’s how Al and I do it when we get to a new place. We do not try to be intrusive. We like to say our hello’s and sit down and maybe eat a bit and talk. It’s what one does here. I know it’s a busy world now a days but we should all take a breather sometimes and sit down and talk. You will always find surprises.

While other folks are playing music I walk around and notice their is a section where folks can get free clothes and there is also a room that is a kitchen. I say hello to the 5 or 6 young women who are working cleaning up after the lunch. As it so happens they are from Virginia, from all over the state. I live in the Roanoke, Va. area so we all laugh a bit and go over familiar areas we know. In the back of my mind I was wondering how cool this is that people are still coming down with such spirits and smiles.

The time was getting late and we had to head off to the next place. All of us say our goodbyes.

If anyone that is reading this is wondering if there are any folks making this world a better place these days, all they have to do is go to Arabi, La. and roll up their sleeves, cause no one sits on the sidelines here.

Still Pickin’

Bill Hudson

http://www.dragonfly.com/ is sending entertainers to the devastated areas in Louisiana and Mississippi

More Photo's of March-April's trip

A Job Well Done and the Story that You are not seeing on your TV screen.

Al Coffey and I personal want to thank Mike Meade and his girlfriend, Elaine for talking the time out of their busy lives to help out. Mike works for a film company and they were kind enough to let him go for a week. Elaine works for Wal-Mart and they also let her go once they found out what she was doing. Their story is repeated many times over all over this county.
We now have 5 schools we have adopted, and put on 2,000 miles. And after talking with everyone, well, they want to go back. Go back to the mud, go back living out of a car and on the go for a week, go back to living on very little sleep, yes go back. But why you may ask?
There is something going on in this county that I believe is at the core of what this county is about, that is, helping those in need. And down here in the Gulf Coast there is STILL a need. And that need is being answered by I do not know how many thousands of people all across this county right now as I write this. Henry the fiddler and I use to say this. That is, how many hundreds if not thousands of small groups are there out there that are helping people down here? On their own they can see the need. There are many small churches that are STILL sending people to help. We run across them in our travels, all age groups from all walks of life. You will not see it in the news maybe but they are STILL coming down. But why may you ask?
When we go down it’s about a week and in that week we try to fit in as much as we can in a 24 hour day. So the scope of what happened down here is something the brain I do not think can wrap itself around. If you came down and lived with us for a week then you would understand what I am trying to saying. You might ask yourself, what about the government? I am not going to spend the space here talking about what they have not done and still are not doing. But I would like to quote Time magazine front page story Aug. 13, 2007 “The most important thing to remember about the drowning of New Orleans is that it wasn’t a natural disaster. It was man-made disaster, created by lousy engineering, misplaced priorities and pork barrel politics.” And I would add to that many other communities across the Gulf Coast. But why may you ask is this STILL going on?
The scope of what happen back in 2005 demands a Marshall plan on our own very shore. This is our own county that this happened too. And even though the government has been lacking, the slack has been taken up by folks across this county with little or no fanfare. Liberals right next to conservatives, religious folk’s right next to born- again pagans. At the end of the day it does not matter. They roll up their sleeves and get to work. That is the American spirit. And it’s for very real. You are not seeing this on your TV. Why, may you ask? That question and many more is something that all of us who have been down there are STILL asking.
Still Pickin’
Bill Hudson


http://www.dragonfly.com/ is sending entertainers to the devastated areas in Louisiana and Mississippi.